The signal quality of wireless broadcast of digital television signals can degrade in vehicular or other non-stationary applications due to fading, multipath and travel between broadcast stations. As is the case with most broadcast technologies, a wireless broadcast of digital television has no feedback mechanism or means to replace video packets or frames lost at the receiving end. Past attempts to solve this problem have proven expensive and non-sustainable.
Third generation Smartphones and other connected devices may receive unicast streamed content on-demand. This content is relatively reliable, as it is sent by cellular radio networks which enable retransmission, error correction and handover in mobile applications. On the other hand, a digital television stream may occupy a significant portion of the cell site capacity, and is therefore delivered at an unsustainable cost. The required bandwidth may also lead to congestion situations in venues where multiple users demand (but are unable to receive) the same content.
A standard promulgated by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for mobile and handheld devices, also referred to as mobile digital television, allows television broadcasters to send mobile-optimized content to handheld devices. This new technology requires specialized transmitters and receivers, which both bring additional costs. Lacking a means to provide feedback and receive commands from the network, it is questionable whether this protocol will be as reliable as streaming content received over dedicated cellular connections.